Buenos Aires

  Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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We completed our last bus ride and arrived in BA!  Rather than stay in hostels and hotels anymore, we tracked down an apartment in the Recoletta area of BA to use as a home base for the week. For the same price as a budget hotel, we picked up a loft apartment with all the amenities of home.  Words cannot fairly describe how excited and relieved we are to have a full kitchen and an actual home for the week!  

a Modern Art Museum

Recoleta, our home base sits toward the Northwestern corner of the city center.  Further Northwest lies the quieter neighborhood of Palermo, a more middle class area, about a mile to the West is the waterfront via Retiro where the rich live, and two miles to the South is the more bohemian neighborhood of San Telmo with vibrant antique street markets and neighborhood cafes.  All the barrios are connected by a metro line and in between them lies the heart of Buenos Aires. 

Our first day was spent getting to know our own area of Recoletta.  Streets lined with trees front rows of modern and early twentieth century seven story apartment buildings.  Gourmet food shops and higher end grocery stores lined the main thoroughfare, with the standard assortment of Parilla grills and specialty retail.  We wandered North to the famous Recoleta cemetary and accross the boulevards to pay a visit to the national arts museum which houses a nice collection of paintings and sculptures, but more importantly, a diarama of the band KISS!

Day two was spent heading West to explore the waterfront.  BA has done a fantastic job at converting what were once run down wherehouses into a collection of lofts and restaurants fronting a spotlessly clean waterfront promenade.  Vintage cranes were left in place to maintain the waterfront atmosphere and a spinning pedestrian "sundial" suspension bridge connects the two sides of the river. 

q First Class Restaurants on the Waterfront

Businessmen in dark suits take power lunches in the rows of four star cafes while those of us with lives of liesure soaked up the sun sipping coffee.   As with other posh waterfront projects we've seen throughout the world,  Laura's "favorite" tenant Hooters  anchors the development with a prime center location. It's always nice to see that only the classiest American restaurant themes enjoy international exposure.  I've heard there is a guy that visits all the Starbucks chains fulltime.  I feel like I've seen most of the international Hooters now.  Can I have a sponsorship?

Day 3...